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Is failure to record dtmf tones by design?

I bought trueCall primarily for the call screening. This it does pretty well.
I added the recording function to save me making notes. This works too, BUT:
Having suffered for at least two years with my bank's automated phone system dropping digits, but only when specifying a sum of money, so 123*45 becomes 123*00 or 12*00 or even 1*00, I thought trueCall would help. To help in this it is crucial that the dtmf (touch tone) tones are recorded, so I can confront the bank with a recording of a failed transaction where I did press the right buttons.
What did I find?
Not only are no tones recorded, but the odd syllable or two of words next to these tones are cut out. This produces a recording that sounds edited (because essentially it is). No good for proving my point.

Is this behaviour by design? Is it avoidable (by some config option I haven't found)? Is it a legal requirement?

Having suffered for at least two years with my bank's automated phone system dropping digits, but only when specifying a sum of money (so 123*45 becomes 123*00 or 12*00 or even 1*00), I thought trueCall would help. It is crucial that the dtmf (touch tone) tones are recorded, so I can confront the bank with a recording of a failed transaction where I did press the right buttons.

What did I find? Not only are no tones recorded, but the odd syllable or two of words next to these tones are cut out. This produces a recording that sounds edited (because essentially it is). No good for proving my point.

Is this behaviour by design? Is it avoidable (by some config option I haven't found)? Is it a legal requirement?

Click to expand...

trueCall said:

The behaviour that the customer is reporting is designed in, and there is a very good reason...

When trueCall is playing back a call recording through the handset menu it is also listening for DTMF tones - the user may press '3' to delete the recording or '4' to skip to the next recording. A problem occurs if there is, for example, the DTMF tone '3' in a recording. When trueCall plays this recording back it will hear the '3' being played back and think that the user has pressed '3'. It will then delete the recording!

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to differentiate between an actual button press and a DTMF tone in the recording - both are audio tones on the local side. We have solved this by not allowing DTMF tones into recordings.

When trueCall is recording an answering machine message or making a call recording it constantly listens out for a DTMF tone. If it hears a tone it pauses, rewinds to when the tone was first heard (less 1 second or so for safety) then resumes recording. This removes the DTMF tone from the recording and chops out a bit of audio - which is what the customer is reporting.

I'm afraid that there are no configuration options available in trueCall to prevent this behaviour.

Some phones can be unpredictable in their processing of DTMF tones in the middle of a call. With some models you can press a key and sometimes this is only released onto the line a few seconds later. This makes navigating menus fiendishly difficult (including automated systems such as telephone banking). Of course, as a customer you can say 'the system should work with all phones that are commercially available', but if companies introduce phones into the market that behave differently to the norm you can understand that service operators are caught in an impossible position.

I suggest the customer tries a different handset to solve his problem. I accept that this shouldn't be required, but the telephony network is a varied eco-system of different products from different manufacturers. Not all of these products work exactly as you would expect, and sometimes there is a mismatch.

Click to expand...

My own answer is to purchase one of those cheap phone recording pick-ups (that adapt to a cassette recorder), and use an old-fashioned corded phone with it for the bank transaction. (Every home should have a corded phone on stand-by - DECT doesn't work in a power cut!)

Yes perfectly understood. Only looks obvious when you know the answer.
The bank problem has been with me for at least a couple of years now and I've used three different telephone lines in two different dialling areas 400 miles apart and five different telephones, including basic cord telephones. I've also had someone watching me press the buttons and still they sent me a letter saying it was not at their end.
That all said, this is not a complete deal-breaker,it is just a disappointment that I can't do that particular job with it. I have since I've had it made recordings of a conversation with a solicitor and with a builder, both of which I'm glad I've been able to do.
Thanks for quick response.
Dave